media

On Sunday, Tom Fletcher announced a very exciting project that is the Children’s Book Club he is doing with WHSmith. In true Tom Fletcher style, his announcement video took form of a little musical number, with him creeping around a WHSmith after hours and drawing glasses on Zoella and Richard & Judy.

Scrolling down to the comments, the general consensus was positive. Everyone loved Tom’s creative way of revealing this news, and found the song funny and catchy.

However, a very small minority of commenters had another thing on their minds.

Last weekend, I binge-watched the new Netflix series, Girlboss, in one day. So I guess you could say I liked it.

The show is a semi-autobiographical depiction of Sophia Amoruso’s, the real life Girlboss, entrepanerial rise of her vintage fashion brand Nasty Gal from its inception in 2006, when it was just a lowly ebay stored where she ‘flipped’ clothes. The then-23 year old Sophia just wanted to not work for anyone else anymore, and so she almost by accident became her own boss.

Back in August, I wrote a little post delving into my journey with podcasts called 5 Podcasts You Should Listen To, and this time I am back to tell you about some more.

I’ve really taken to this form of media. It reminds me of my childhood and early teens, when I would turn on the radio to tune into Southern FM’s daily breakfast show (any Brighton natives remember Danny and Nicky in the Morning?). Hearing the bright chirpy voices was a great start to the day. However, as I got older, I started to favour listening to music or watching YouTube.

Podcasts are great, because they give you a chance to consume something as passively or actively as you want. I not only listen to podcasts when I travel, but when I’m cooking or cleaning, before I fall asleep, or even just in my bedroom when I feel like closing my eyes for a bit and not have to endure the silent abyss.

We don’t know how she does it. Amy (Mila Kunis) has a seemingly perfect life, with a her high school sweetheart husband, over-achieving kids, beautiful home and a career. But she’s also exhausted, over-worked and over-committed. And she’s about to snap.

Even though I’ve always been aware that podcasts exist, I didn’t start properly listening to any until about a year ago – and I’ve never looked back.

Being in a long distance relationship, I have a lot of in-between time spent travelling to and from Sheffield to where my boyfriend lives. Those three and a half hour journeys are long, and there’s only so long I can sit listening to music (though I have spent many-a train journey listening to the Hamilton cast album on repeat). Occasionally I’ll spend my time listening to an audiobook, but podcasts are definitely the best way to pass the time, in my opinion.

They’re so relaxed and conversational, and depending on how good the chemistry is between hosts/guests, it can often feel like you’re just sat chatting with a friend (in a very one-sided manner, of course). I don’t just listen to them when I’m travelling, I’ll also listen to one or two while I’m at work, or even around the house when I’m cleaning or cooking.